Low-Cost Microfabrication for MEMS Switches and Varactors

This paper presents a low-cost microfabrication technique for manufacturing radio frequency microelectro-mechanical system (RF MEMS) switches and varactors without intensive clean-room environments. The fabrication process entails only laser microstructuring technique, non-clean-room microlithography, and standard wet-bench and hot-film emboss of SU-8 and ADEX polymers. MEMS movable structures were fabricated out of 14-mu m-thick aluminum foils and suspended above coplanar-waveguide transmission lines, which were implemented on top of FR4 substrates via 5-mu m-thick SU-8 dielectric anchors. Both MEMS structures and an FR4 substrate were integrated using micropatterned polymers, developed by using dry-film ADEX and SU-8 polymers, for a composite assembly. An average fabrication yield of higher than 60% was achieved, calculated from 10 fabrication attempts. The RF measurement results show that the RF MEMS devices fabricated by using the novel microfabrication process have good figures of merit, at much lower overall fabrication costs, as compared to the devices fabricated by conventional clean-room process, enabling it as a very good microfabrication process for cost-effective rapid prototyping of MEMS.